Tuesday Night HeroQuest!

[lucasdp]

We played The Halls of Vision last week and it was a pretty good one, or I had fun with it anyway. The "puzzle" aspect of this quest wasn't much of a challenge for my Heroes; after the second mummy died and the second door disappeared, they said, "Ok, we won't kill any more mummies." So they found their way into the laboratory room with no issue, Vrag the Barbarian found the magic keys, and the doors reappeared.
Then began the conversation of: Do we go back to that first door, or keep pressing forward? This part is fun for me. Vrag is trying to convince the team to go back while everyone else is saying to push forward, and I'm just trying to keep my best poker face.
They decided to explore past the secret door, but upon seeing some of the undead waiting for them, they quickly sided with Vrag after all and headed back to the first door that disappeared, and out to the exit door.
As with some other RotWL quests, not a lot of peril, no one was ever in danger of death (which Vrag has complained about a couple times...), but I think we still had fun with the disappearing door puzzle. And maybe for ten-year-olds, the puzzle is more challenging; for four heroes in their late 20s/early 30s, though, it didn't take them long to figure it out.

We've got The Gates of Bellthor tonight. It'll be interesting to see how my heroes react to a quest that is, essentially, impossible to win. And then The Halls of the Dead coming up too! That one will be very interesting, what with the heroes being split up and (possibly) losing all their gold... which I still haven't reconciled myself to yet. As I think about it, it seems the simplest solution is to break my goal of running RotWL as a series and let them visit the Armory/Alchemist's Shop before tonight's quest. Give them one last chance to spend the (rather large amount of) gold before it is lost. My only other idea would be to find a way to let them recover a partial amount of their gold later in the questpack... but then that's more work for me...

[Anderas]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[whitebeard]

and (possibly) losing all their gold... which I still haven't reconciled myself to yet.

I don't see the problem here.

"Kill the men! Kill the elves! Keep the gold for ourselves!!"

The game is the most fun when collecting gold means something / there is something to buy and the threat of death is very real. Take their armor, rust their weapons. Make a skeleton a challenge.

[lucasdp]

and (possibly) losing all their gold... which I still haven't reconciled myself to yet.

I don't see the problem here.

"Kill the men! Kill the elves! Keep the gold for ourselves!!"

The game is the most fun when collecting gold means something / there is something to buy and the threat of death is very real. Take their armor, rust their weapons. Make a skeleton a challenge.

You're right, the only "problem" was one that I created myself by trying to play the questpack as a series with little or no trips to the Armory/Alchemist's Shop. If they've collected all this gold, and don't get a chance to buy something, then it doesn't mean anything. After more thought, I have decided that I will allow them to shop before tonight's quest. Then, any/all gold lost is on them.

[lucasdp]

First, this was a very successful Tuesday Night HQ! The Gates of Bellthor was probably one of the most fun quests we've had in a while, or at least that's what most of my Heroes said!
I did let them go shopping before the quest, stating that, after they emerged from the Halls of Vision, they saw the Gates for the next quest and also the faint light of a village a few miles away. The Heroes travel to the village for a short rest and the village has an Armory and an Alchemist's Shop, but no one in the town is brave or adventurous enough to hire as a Mercenary ("They have heard tales of the evil that lies in the Witch Lord's domain"...or something like that ). Miranda the Elf got the hint and purchased a Potion of Restoration, but no one else spent any gold. There was a bit of conversation about the value of saving gold, and Vrag the Barbarian said, "Man, I should have bought a potion," literally on his first turn! I don't think I will feel so bad about taking all their gold on the next quest now.
The Gates of Bellthor is, in my opinion, a pretty basic exploratory quest until you actually find Bellthor. But my heroes seemed to enjoy this, and had a good debate about which way to go when they realized there were two separate paths. For whatever reason, they got a kick out of the spear trap behind almost every door; I guess it's because spear traps aren't as bad as pit traps, and they've been wary about pit traps behind doors for a while.
And then there's Bellthor! In another thread, I believe Goblin King mentioned that Bellthor was his favorite special character and I can certainly see why! A Gargoyle, surrounded by spear traps, that won't move or attack until all heroes are in the room, and can't be harmed until he attacks. Oh, and then that poisonous breath! Boy, I had some fun describing that! "After his attack, Bellthor lets out a foul belch right in Vrag's face! The putrid scent is so strong that your senses dull and the room begins to spin. *roll dice* You lose four mind points and are knocked unconscious!"
Well, I had hoped to be lucky enough to knock all Heroes out with Bellthor's breath, but I only got the Barbarian. After he passed out, Gizzard the Wizard buffed up Lady Darwin the Dwarf with Courage spell and she defeated Bellthor in one fell swoop. "As Bellthor falls, his abdomen expands and bursts, releasing his foul, poisonous gas throughout the room. You have been captured by the Witch Lord!" and a collective "Whooooooa!" from the Heroes. Great way to end it; I've got them super-excited for next week.

A small side-note: I mentioned previously that Vrag had complained that some of the RotWL quests were too easy, but he clarified that this week, saying that, although they're a little easier, he likes that almost every one gives them something new. The Death Mist, the disappearing doors in The Halls of Vision, etc. And I think I agree. I wonder if Return of the Witch Lord was meant to be an easier questpack, but to give the Game Master some ideas of the kind of mechanics that could be introduced in homebrewed quests...

[Anderas]

Apparently most of the people like the Witch Lord more than Kellar's Keep. It is directly in the tradition of the base quest book that also introduces something new each Quest. That's what make the game so addictive.

[lucasdp]

We played The Halls of the Dead, quest 6 in RotWL, this week. At just barely an hour long, this was probably our shortest quest ever, time-wise.
Gizzard the Wizard and Lady Darwin the Dwarf decided to search their prison cell for secret doors first, so they ended up finding the stairway very quickly. Then they decided to go back and check those two doors outside their cell. They checked the north room before the center room, and I managed to pin them between a skeleton and a mummy in the hallway. Some of the luckiest dice-rolling I've ever had resulted in that being an unusually long battle. Meanwhile, Vrag the Barbarian and Miranda the Elf are just off to the side sipping wine, waiting to be found.
Eventually Gizzard and Lady Darwin took out those monsters and opened up the center room. And eventually I finished setting up all those skeletons and revealed Vrag and Miranda on the board. We had a pretty epic battle between the Heroes and the undead in the center room. I advanced the skellies slowly and surrounded those that stayed in the center room too long. Gizzard cast Courage on Miranda, so she was still a valued fighter despite being unarmed.
When the combat was finally over, the Heroes seriously debated exploring the rest of the dungeon to find their lost gold, and I considered letting this play out... But in the end, I admitted that they weren't going to find their gold "in this quest." We surely could have spent another hour or so going around the board and exploring, but I feel that would have been a waste of time, and I'm sure the Heroes would have agreed.

[knightkrawler]

Aaah, Halls of the Dead...
Gonna be an interesting quest with my group because my Skeletons have diagonal attack.
At that point, I'll wager the heroes know not to be surrounded in that central room, or else 8 attacks per round.
Those escapeheavy tactics are then countermeasured by my doublewide corridors all around the board.
Re-wrtiting that quest is gonna be awesome.

Again, your batreps are invaluable. Thanks.

[lucasdp]

Oh yeah, there would have been a lot more damage if my skellies attacked diagonally! Although, my heroes are pretty well equipped and with skeletons only rolling two attack dice, the only ones in any real danger were the unarmed Elf and Barbarian. But that's how Vrag the Barbarian likes to play! And the Wizard could have cast Rock Skin on one of them, too. I think a smart group of heroes would still survive the diagonal attacks, but it could get pretty close if they mess up!

[lucasdp]

This week we played RotWL Q7: The Forgotten Legion. In all honesty, I planned to hit my heroes hard with this one. I was trying for at least one death. The frozen army here is lots of fun for Zargon.
I was hoping that by the time they opened the second door and my next turn came around, they would be at least far enough apart that I could split them up a little, and it played out just as such. Vrag the Barbarian got surrounded in the middle room by himself.


But he was not worried, Vrag thirsts for battle and this is how he likes to play! Gizzard the Wizard stayed in the hall outside (safely behind Lady Darwin the Dwarf) to keep Vrag in sight, and cast a healing spell when necessary. Eventually, Vrag cleared a path through the undead and the four heroes ducked into the orange room to regroup and plan a counter attack.


The epic battle quickly resumed in the orange room and Gizzard eventually fell, prompting the first use of the Rings of Devotion, the homebrewed artifact from Gizzard and Lady Darwin's engagement! Gizzard used another healing spell to get back to full health, and he was back in the fight. I made good use of a couple Evil Wizard cards, and this was probably one of our longest and most interesting battles. My players can be a bit methodical and often will kill all monsters in an area before moving on. This one was different, and really kept them on their toes. The heroes had to keep moving as the monsters kept coming. They had to work as a team and be strategic about who they were attacking to keep each other alive. After time, though, the heroes killed most of the Legion of course, but Skulmar easily made his escape to the stairway.

(Side note here: Slev, if you're reading this, I saw in another thread that you made a quest for this situation, "Shadows of Barak Tor" I think, but I was unable to find it. Any chance I could get a link to it?)

Following the battle, Vrag triggered the spear traps in the northeast quadrant before realizing it was a dead end. Then the heroes split up to explore; Lady Darwin and Vrag took the northwest path, Gizzard and Miranda the Elf took the south east-to-west path. They eventually discovered that both paths lead to the exit. Vrag got ambitious with treasure and secret door searches at the end, and triggered a wandering Chaos Warrior, so I got to have a little extra fun at the end. I used the Explosive Enemy card from the Evil Wizard deck for the first time; I sure got a kick out of that!


So, I killed the Wizard, but he was resurrected by love. if I recall correctly, I got all heroes down to 2 body points or less at one point. At least three healing potions were used, in addition to Gizzard's healing spells. Vrag was cutting it close at the end with only 2 BP. If the dice had fallen differently that last Chaos Warrior might have taken him out. I'd say Zargon did pretty damn well on this one.
Knightkrawler, if your skeletons still have diagonal attack, this is another quest where you could probably slaughter most of your heroes pretty easily...

Looking ahead to next time, The Forbidden Caverns, I think I may put some of the gold they lost in the treasure chest at D, rather than 4 swords. I guess I haven't been using Rust spells often enough, because they've all got decent swords or battle axes right now (except the Wizard, of course). They lost a total of about 2,650 GC in The Halls of the Dead; I was thinking it would be fair to have the chest contain the value of the swords, 1000 GC. "Inside the chest, you find what appears to be the gold and gems that were taken when you were captured. However, upon counting, it seems not all is there; only about 1000 gold coins remain. The finder may distribute the gold as s/he sees fit."